Chimps Taught To "Read"

[Rich Travs]

http://dsc.discovery.com/news/briefs/20020408/chimp.html

April 13 — A pair of chimpanzees can "read" their own names
and over a dozen other words relating to many of their
favorite foods and objects, a team of researchers at Ohio
State University announced on Friday.

A documentary on the chimps, six-year old Keeli and Ivy,
aired on the Discovery Channel on Sunday night. Be reminded
to watch one of the show's repeats.

The documentary is the culmination of a three-year project
lead by Sally Boysen, professor of psychology at Ohio State.
Similar to humans, chimps absorb information more readily at
a young age, so Keeli and Ivy's arrival at the university's
Chimpanzee Center in the 1990s provided a rare opportunity to
see how much the two could learn.

This is dated the 13th. Did anyone catch the Discovery show
they mention?

[Philip Dei]

On Sun, 21 Apr 2002 13:42:16 -0600, Rich Travsky
<REtravsky@hotmail.comMOVE> wrote:

>
> http://dsc.discovery.com/news/briefs/20020408/chimp.html
>
> April 13 — A pair of chimpanzees can "read" their own names
> and over a dozen other words relating to many of their
> favorite foods and objects, a team of researchers at Ohio
> State University announced on Friday.

I guess those chimps in africa picked up a copy of Dr. Spock
and started reading up on how to raise babies.

Philip <pdeitik at bcm.tmc.edu

[Lorenzo L.]

Rich Travsky wrote:
>
> http://dsc.discovery.com/news/briefs/20020408/chimp.html
>
> April 13 — A pair of chimpanzees can "read" their own names
> and over a dozen other words relating to many of their
> favorite foods and objects, a team of researchers at Ohio
> State University announced on Friday.
>
> A documentary on the chimps, six-year old Keeli and Ivy,
> aired on the Discovery Channel on Sunday night. Be reminded
> to watch one of the show's repeats.
>
> The documentary is the culmination of a three-year project
> lead by Sally Boysen, professor of psychology at Ohio
> State. Similar to humans, chimps absorb information more
> readily at a young age, so Keeli and Ivy's arrival at the
> university's Chimpanzee Center in the 1990s provided a rare
> opportunity to see how much the two could learn.
>
> This is dated the 13th. Did anyone catch the Discovery show
> they mention?

It's on tomorrow, 22 April, 8:00 PM. Check your local
listings.

Lorenzo L. Love http://home.thegrid.net/~lllove

It's frustrating when you know all the answers, but nobody
bothers to ask you the questions.

[Dj Wolover]

Rich Travsky <REtravsky@hotmail.comMOVE> wrote in message
news:<3CC31618.B3E37D1C@hotmail.comMOVE>...
> http://dsc.discovery.com/news/briefs/20020408/chimp.html
>
> April 13 — A pair of chimpanzees can "read" their own names
> and over a dozen other words relating to many of their
> favorite foods and objects, a team of researchers at Ohio
> State University announced on Friday.
>
> A documentary on the chimps, six-year old Keeli and Ivy,
> aired on the Discovery Channel on Sunday night. Be reminded
> to watch one of the show's repeats.
>
> The documentary is the culmination of a three-year project
> lead by Sally Boysen, professor of psychology at Ohio
> State. Similar to humans, chimps absorb information more
> readily at a young age, so Keeli and Ivy's arrival at the
> university's Chimpanzee Center in the 1990s provided a rare
> opportunity to see how much the two could learn.
>
> This is dated the 13th. Did anyone catch the Discovery show
> they mention?

I taped this show and watched a couple hours after finishing a
paper comparing bonobo and chimp behavior patterns. The thing
that struck me most about the airing is that the chimps
involved in the studies at Ohio State were able to recognize
various food calls made by other individuals in their group.
They did this by pointing at a picture of a particular food
item that the call was regarding. They got the item right
around 80-90% of the time (as I recall). Otherwise, it was
your average "awww, look the apes are learning to talk like us
documentary." One thing that was apalling was that Boysen used
pop and candy as main sources of treats during the
conditioning. As a result, when the chimps were able to choose
what they wanted as a reward, they chose mainly those items.
The film crew also caught Keeli and Ivy partaking in a meal of
pizza on one occasion and cake on their birthdays. Maybe its
just me, but i think that this treatment of chimps is
unacceptable. Also, the holding areas for the chimps seemed to
be very small, and from what the film suggested the chimps
were kept fairly solitary when not in training. I'm wondering
if this treatment psychologically impairs the chimps when
considering their mental development. The males filmed showed
a lot of aggression towards the film crew. Could this be due
to a psychological "stunting" of their development so they
permanently retain adolescent actions due to their
environment?

[Rich Travs]

DJ Wolover wrote:
>
> Rich Travsky <REtravsky@hotmail.comMOVE> wrote in message
> news:<3CC31618.B3E37D1C@hotmail.comMOVE>...
> > http://dsc.discovery.com/news/briefs/20020408/chimp.html
> >
> > April 13 — A pair of chimpanzees can "read" their own
> > names and over a dozen other words relating to many of
> > their favorite foods and objects, a team of researchers
> > at Ohio State University announced on Friday.
> >
> > A documentary on the chimps, six-year old Keeli and Ivy,
> > aired on the Discovery Channel on Sunday night. Be
> > reminded to watch one of the show's repeats.
> >
> > The documentary is the culmination of a three-year
> > project lead by Sally Boysen, professor of psychology at
> > Ohio State. Similar to humans, chimps absorb information
> > more readily at a young age, so Keeli and Ivy's arrival
> > at the university's Chimpanzee Center in the 1990s
> > provided a rare opportunity to see how much the two could
> > learn.
> >
> > This is dated the 13th. Did anyone catch the Discovery
> > show they mention?
>
> I taped this show and watched a couple hours after finishing
> a paper comparing bonobo and chimp behavior patterns. The
> thing that struck me most about the airing is that the
> chimps involved in the studies at Ohio State were able to
> recognize various food calls made by other individuals in
> their group. They did this by pointing at a picture of a
> particular food item that the call was regarding. They got
> the item right around 80-90% of the time (as I recall).
> Otherwise, it was your average "awww, look the apes are
> learning to talk like us documentary." One thing that was
> apalling was that Boysen used pop and candy as main sources
> of treats during the conditioning. As a result, when the
> chimps were able to choose what they wanted as a reward,
> they chose mainly those items. The film crew also caught
> Keeli and Ivy partaking in a meal of pizza on one occasion
> and cake on their birthdays. Maybe its just me, but i think
> that this treatment of chimps is unacceptable. Also, the
> holding areas for the chimps seemed to be very small, and
> from what the film suggested the chimps were kept fairly
> solitary when not in training. I'm wondering if this
> treatment psychologically impairs the chimps when
> considering their mental development. The males filmed
> showed a lot of aggression towards the film crew. Could this
> be due to a psychological "stunting" of their development so
> they permanently retain adolescent actions due to their
> environment?

Well, neoteny of some form HAS been put forth as a factor for
the brain expansion and learning ability increase...

[Ejudy]

Your observations seem to me to be quite reasonable,
compassionate and potentially useful from a few angles. Maybe
you should send e-mail to Ohio State and put forth some
questions to them?

I used to hang around the Duke primate center with all the
cute little prosimians and i remember making the heavily oiled
banana bread for the lemurs and all the salads and fruit
etc.... they were VERY concerned with their diets.... so
what's with the pizza and pop? Why not just pass around
bubblegum, teach em to smoke, and gamble....oooee?

But beyond that i wonder if they are studying the great
apes from a
psychologically health point of view. Whoever would just blow
this question off is full of it, too, cuz thats a very
important sensitivity issue we should factor into the study
just like you are getting at. And how would any of us like
to be in a cage? The primatologists i know care about these
issues and i think maybe sometimes perhaps outsiders
viewpoints may refresh their perspective. Maybe they get
tunnel vision.

ejudy

=================================================================

bnl_guy@hotmail.com (DJ Wolover) wrote:

> Rich Travsky <REtravsky@hotmail.comMOVE> wrote:
> > http://dsc.discovery.com/news/briefs/20020408/chimp.html
> >
> > April 13 — A pair of chimpanzees can "read" their own
> > names and over a dozen other words relating to many of
> > their favorite foods and objects, a team of researchers
> > at Ohio State University announced on Friday.
> >
> > A documentary on the chimps, six-year old Keeli and Ivy,
> > aired on the Discovery Channel on Sunday night. Be
> > reminded to watch one of the show's repeats.
> >
> > The documentary is the culmination of a three-year
> > project lead by Sally Boysen, professor of psychology at
> > Ohio State. Similar to humans, chimps absorb information
> > more readily at a young age, so Keeli and Ivy's arrival
> > at the university's Chimpanzee Center in the 1990s
> > provided a rare opportunity to see how much the two could
> > learn.
> >
> > This is dated the 13th. Did anyone catch the Discovery
> > show they mention?
>
>
>
> I taped this show and watched a couple hours after finishing
> a paper comparing bonobo and chimp behavior patterns. The
> thing that struck me most about the airing is that the
> chimps involved in the studies at Ohio State were able to
> recognize various food calls made by other individuals in
> their group. They did this by pointing at a picture of a
> particular food item that the call was regarding. They got
> the item right around 80-90% of the time (as I recall).
> Otherwise, it was your average "awww, look the apes are
> learning to talk like us documentary." One thing that was
> apalling was that Boysen used pop and candy as main sources
> of treats during the conditioning. As a result, when the
> chimps were able to choose what they wanted as a reward,
> they chose mainly those items. The film crew also caught
> Keeli and Ivy partaking in a meal of pizza on one occasion
> and cake on their birthdays. Maybe its just me, but i think
> that this treatment of chimps is unacceptable. Also, the
> holding areas for the chimps seemed to be very small, and
> from what the film suggested the chimps were kept fairly
> solitary when not in training. I'm wondering if this
> treatment psychologically impairs the chimps when
> considering their mental development. The males filmed
> showed a lot of aggression towards the film crew. Could this
> be due to a psychological "stunting" of their development so
> they permanently retain adolescent actions due to their
> environment?